Look, up by the world's third-largest known sphinx: It's a 6-year-old from New Jersey! It's Batman!
No, it's a 6-year-old from New Jersey dressed as Batman!
"They're just costumes," said Owen Riley of Riverton, on this day better known as the Caped Crusader. "We've got lots of them at home."
It's exactly that kind of modesty that makes a hero super.
Miniature avengers swarmed the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology yesterday to attend its Superhero Day.
The festivities were the museum's contribution to the Penn Libraries' yearlong "POW: Comics, Animation, and Graphic Novels" program.
New spins were put on old games. In Heroic Twister, kids put their hands and feet on images of shields, capes, thunderbolts, and the word pow. The show of agility took place in front of a Japanese 19th-century Buddhist altar.
Other activities included a lesson on cartooning and, this being a museum, a talk about the parallels between contemporary and ancient Greek heroes.
"Who are the most famous superheroes?" asked Peter Struck, an associate professor of classical studies at Penn, as he stood in front of the sphinx.
"Superman!" "Batman!" "Tinker Bell!" - the last an effort by a 3-year-old to super-size fairies.
Struck explained that superheroes from ancient times remind him of the ones children admire today.
"Hercules reminds me of Superman," he said. Both had extraordinary strength.
Struck told the story of Hera, queen of the gods, who sent snakes into baby Hercules' crib to kill him. But Hercules was so strong even then, Struck said, that he ripped the heads off the snakes with his tiny hands.
His audience ate it up like ice cream on a hot day.
Christopher O'Neill, 7, of West Philadelphia, knew the answers to all the questions about the old-timers.
"I really like ancient stuff," Christopher said, adding that he had seen a movie and read a book on Greek mythology.
Amira Heep, an 8-year-old from Philadelphia, showed a preference for modern marvels as she struggled to put a Power Rangers suit on over her alter-ego civilian clothes.
What's so super about a Power Ranger?
"I can't tell you," she said, her tone tinged with impatience. "It's a secret."
Six-year-old Shakti Zhuraw, of Mount Airy, stood at an art table, in all her pink glory, and decorated a mask. Her character? A homegrown one named Super Pink. She believes in full disclosure about her powers.
"I can lift up the whole wide world and everything," Shakti said.
Kelly Pickel, 30, also known as Catwoman, was one of the few adults in full costume. The Oxford resident said she brought daughter Layla (the Tinker Bell booster) because the preschooler is "the product of two comic-book geeks."
The elder Pickel takes a noble view of superheroes.
"They inspire us to be great," she said.